Videoconferencing is a technology that allows people in two or more locations to communicate via simultaneous two-way video and audio transmissions. Videoconferencing has become an important way to conduct business because it allows people to see and hear what is occurring at a remote location. Being able to see what is occurring at remote locations may help a person to understand what is occurring better than simply being able to hear what is occurring at the remote locations.
In many circumstances, a group of people may gather together in a central venue for a meeting. For instance, the group of people may gather together in a single conference room for the meeting. A videoconferencing system installed in the central venue may capture images and sound in the central venue and transmit the images and sound in real time to videoconferencing systems at one or more remote venues. Likewise, the videoconferencing systems at the remote venues may capture images and sound in the remote venues and transmit the images and sound in real time to the central venue and the other remote venues.
In these circumstances, it may be difficult for an individual at a remote venue to determine which of the people at the central venue is speaking. This may be because a camera at the central venue may need to have a broad enough viewing angle so that all participants in the central venue are visible. Several approaches may be taken to overcome this issue. For instance, if the videoconferencing system has a single camera, the videoconferencing system may attempt to automatically identify a person at the central venue who is speaking, automatically direct the camera in the direction of the identified person, and to transmit images captured by the camera to a remote venue. In another instance, if the videoconferencing system has multiple cameras, the videoconferencing system may automatically identify a person at the central venue who is speaking and automatically transmit to a remote venue images having the angle of view centered in the general direction of the identified person. In this way, a participant at the remote venue sees video of the person speaking, as opposed to seeing video of the entire conference room.